People’s Committee Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City, Le Hoang Quan, hosted a reception for Cuba’s visiting Vice President of the Council of State to Vietnam. Quan said that the visit would further strengthen the two countries’ close relations that had been maintained over 55 years. He also pointed to Vietnam’s socialist achievements and expressed willingness to increase cooperation. The Vice President replied that the friendship will continually develop and pass on from generation to generation.

Myanmar planned to deport 935 migrants to their home country. The country will soon send back 608 male, 74 female and 45 children migrants to Bangladesh, after the Myanmarese navy found the migrants’ small fishing boat drifting on the sea. The boat sailed to Malaysian waters, and they waited 45 days for a Malaysian human-trafficking boat to take them into the country, but the boat never turned up and the migrants were left there to die. The Myanmarese government said that migrants became the victim of human trafficking and slavery.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo questioned Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s policy during a recent parliament question time. Shii asked Abe’s view on the Potsdam Declaration. Abe said that he had never read the declaration (avoiding commenting on the country’s past war aggression). The declaration was issued jointly by world leaders demanding Japan surrender unconditionally at the end of WW2, which the Japanese emperor accepted. Shii demanded the government withdraw bills changing the constitution to allow Japan to participate in foreign military actions.

Over 600 young people attended a meeting held by Democratic Youth League of Japan. At the meeting, former Japanese Communist Party Chair and the Party Social Science Institute Director, Fuwa Tetsuzo, called on the youth to make friends with Karl Marx, learning scientific socialism. He explained the multiple problems in today’s society and argued that “the root causes – the problem – is capital’s profit-oriented nature”. One participant said youth should be united and contribute to progressive social change.

According to a statement from China’s Ministry of Education, more than four million students benefited from a national project that planned to improve teaching conditions of poorly equipped primary schools in rural areas. New technology was sent to 64,000 primary schools in rural areas, and now the students have access to teaching resources just like top schools in cities. Chinese President Xi Jinping said “don’t let the kids lose at the starting line”. He stressed the importance of education to the development of rural areas. The central government allocated more than A$15 billion in 2014 to support education in rural areas, a 6.1 percent increase compared to the year before although the number of students kept dropping (due to population growth slow down).